Pueblo Grande in what is now Phoenix, Arizona, broke up the low-desert landscape with a football-field-sized platform mound, a towering great house, at least two ballcourts, and hundreds of walled compounds housing the 2,000 residents of the village.

Views of reconstructed house compound at Pueblo Grande

The many prehistoric Salt River Valley canals covered hundreds of miles and could have watered several hundred thousand acres if they were all operational at the same time.

One corner of the Pueblo Grande platform mound (yours truly is standing there to provide a sense of the height of the remaining walls).

700 years ago, the great house at Casa Grande Ruins stood 3 stories high, with a central tower rising above that dizzying height. Other multistory buildings stood nearby, including a platform mound like that of Pueblo Grande. Excavations on top of the platform mound revealed the remains of two flat-topped mounds, or "pyramids," with structures on top, all enclosed by a wall.